Something Blue, Something New

Trees Squares, the first in the series.

Sunday was kind to me. I was able to spend most of it at my studio in Dallas, completing my Before Dawn painting. In developing from my previous painting in this series, Trees Squared, the edges of the squares in Before Dawn are beginning to blur in places, giving energy to certain areas, and also the optical illusion of brilliance. The ‘moving’ squares also contrast with the sharp stillness of the pieces of sky, as they radiate around the center of the composition.

The starlit branches are graphite, black, brown and blue, with warmth-giving ochre, a visual reference to Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

I found the colors for this piece from the hours before dawn, when warm purples affect the blues and silvers, and plants are backlit, sculptural against the smooth translucency.

I will post a better photograph of this new painting as soon possible. This iPhone snapshot misses the purples and silvers of the actual painting.

Work in Progress ~ "Greensquare"

I also began a new work, an exploration of my beloved trees with the vibrant, moving Fall air rushing through the leaves. The energy of the bark is more fluid, faster, like a Japanese ink drawing.

The leaves will move towards the viewer, the foreground pushing away from the smaller leaves in the background. The colors will most likely be greens, silvers, yellows, with grey-blue colors from the sky appearing.